“It hurts,” Alvaro Bautista vents: could Jerez be his last dance in SBK?

At Estoril, the Spaniard proved more competitive than in the previous rounds. He was also close to getting back on the podium, but threw it all away with a mistake he may come to regret.

He will turn 42 on November 21, but Alvaro Bautista showed at the recent Superbike round in Portugal that he still has something to offer. Superpole once again proved to be a weakness for the Spaniard, who could manage no better than 12th, condemning himself to a start from the fourth row. He came back to finish ninth in Race 1, but secured an excellent fifth place in the Superpole Race, which earned him a spot on the second row for Race 2.

In the final race of the weekend at Estoril, he produced a superb performance that gave him the chance to return to the podium, something he had not achieved since the opening round of the 2026 WorldSBK season at Phillip Island. On lap 17, while running in third place, he crashed at Turn 1 and threw it all away. In the immediate aftermath, he reacted with anger and despair, unable to understand how he had ended up on the ground after an almost perfect race. Alberto Surra was close behind; we do not know who would have come out on top in the end, but the Barni Spark Racing Team rider had a chance to achieve a goal that meant a lot to him.

The two-time Superbike world champion is disappointed with his crash, although he does not believe he did anything specific wrong: "It wasn't really a mistake," the official WorldSBK website reports. "I didn't do anything differently and I didn't feel like I was on the limit; I was closer to the limit on other laps. I simply crashed after losing the front. It's a shame because we've shown that we have the speed and that we always fight; we've never given up. This season has been very tough for us. People only see the results, but in reality we've had a lot of problems throughout the year.It hurts, but honestly, I'd rather crash like that than finish eighth.The bike was working more or less acceptably, and we were fighting with the other riders."

In 2027, he will no longer be with the Barni Spark Racing Team. He has yet to find a seat in the Superbike World Championship or another series, but Bautista is taking it calmly: "I don't know what the future holds for me. Fortunately, I'll be back on the bike on Friday. I hope to rediscover the feeling we had at the end of Estoril, be competitive there and try to finish the season in the best possible way. I'm not worried about the future; I think I'm ready for any kind of situation. I feel strong, I feel like a good rider, and I can fight for a good championship position. I want to be a racing rider; I love racing."

The Spaniard is convinced he is fully capable of continuing to race in WorldSBK:"Believe me, if I felt I didn't have the speed or couldn't be competitive, I'd go home, but I feel I have the speed and can get good results. I have the speed and I'll never give up. The day I no longer feel that fire inside me, I'll stay at home."

He will blow out 42 candles in November, and he has made his mark on WorldSBK history by bringing Ducati back to the title after a drought of more than ten years. In 2022 and 2023, he beat champions such as Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, before the minimum-weight rule held him back, forcing him to race with 6–7 kg of ballast that inevitably affected him. He has nothing left to prove.

This weekend marks the final round of the 2026 Superbike World Championship. In Jerez, on home soil in Spain, Alvaro could make his last appearance in the series. Although he keeps saying he feels competitive and wants to continue racing, he currently has no seat for next year: the 2027 grid is essentially complete, and it is hard to see an opening being made for him. We will have to wait and see whether there are any surprises. For now, Bautista is determined to end his time with the Barni team's Ducati on a high note; the rest remains to be seen.

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